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In Memoriam
by Alice Winn
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Any reader picking up a World War I book will have some sense, at least intellectually, of the historic horrors that await. But this propulsive and poetic debut thrust me deep into the muddy maws of industrialized trench warfare in a way that felt emotionally convincing and new. But In Memoriam is more than a searing war novel; it’s also a suspenseful story of forbidden queer love. It follows best friends Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood from their English boarding school, into the officer ranks and to the battlefields of Ypres, Loos and the Somme. As expected, their paths are strewn with misery, death and escape, but I was left most awed by Alice Winn’s brilliant probing of the invisible injuries – those left by war, yes, but also by the repressive civilization that preceded and precipitated it.
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"Any reader picking up a World War I book will have some sense, at least intellectually, of the historic horrors that await. But this propulsive and poetic debut thrust me deep into the muddy maws of industrialized trench warfare in a way that felt emotionally convincing and new. But In Memoriam is more than a searing war novel; it’s also a suspenseful story of forbidden queer love. It follows best friends Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood from their English boarding school, into the officer ranks and to the battlefields of Ypres, Loos and the Somme. As expected, their paths are strewn with misery, death and escape, but I was left most awed by Alice Winn’s brilliant probing of the invisible injuries – those left by war, yes, but also by the repressive civilization that preceded and precipitated it."
"It blew my mind. I sent Alice fan mail to say so, and we ended up on the phone for an hour talking about medieval beards."
"Alice Winn’s In Memoriam— a love story set during the tumult of the First World War—came roaring out of the starting gates and straight into the bestseller lists. In it, two heartsick schoolboys are forced to confront their feelings for one another amid the horror of war. It’s been endorsed by such literary grandees as Maggie O’Farrell and Garth Greenwell; The New York Times has also described it as both “devastating” and “tender”. (See also: Winn’s recent Five Books interview in which she recommended five of the best WW1 novels .) The actor Tom Hanks has published a second book, his first novel, which offers a behind-the-scenes account of the creation of a blockbuster movie: The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece . It’s received somewhat mixed reviews ( The Washington Post described it as “thoroughly engaging”; The Guardian said it was “a bland busman’s holiday”) but has already garnered plenty of column inches and will certainly find a large audience. (Hanks’ first book, a collection of short stories in which typewriters featured prominently, is reported to have sold 234,000 copies in the UK alone.)"